They say that travel transforms you, shifts your perspective and allows you to gain a greater appreciation for other cultures and ways of life.

If you’re lucky, travel may also bring you closer to yourself, to the core of who you uniquely are in this world. On my recent visit to Ghana, I was one of the lucky ones.

My trip to Ghana manifested over many years, but came together quite quickly after I interviewed the founder of Traveling Black for another research project last Spring. Currently, I am a tenure-track professor at San Diego State University researching issues related to diversity and inclusion in the travel sphere. More specifically – my work is focused on understanding the lived experiences of Black travelers around the world. When I learned about the influx of organizations catering towards travelers of color – I knew this was not only something I wanted to research, but also experience. With support from my department, and serendipitous timing, I was able to join a group trip Ghana with nine other African-Americans from around the United States in August, 2018. As all qualitative researchers know, a significant part of the research process is reflexivity and positionality. What follows are my musings of this experience as a researcher, and also a participant.

As I stepped off the plane onto African soil for the first time in many years, almost immediately, I felt a sense of home. The slightly humid morning winter air, Gospel music blaring from the airport speakers, colorful garments swaying in the wind, and a sea of Black faces rushing to help me with my bags; greeting us by saying “AKWAABA” which means “WELCOME” in their local language. The spirit of this nation was instantaneously evident as we were greeted by our local Ghanaian guide.

The colors of Ghana.

Unlike any other trip I had taken in the past, this was a group trip organized by an American company based in Oakland, California called ‘Traveling Black’ – an organization dedicated to connecting the African Diaspora one experience at a time. This particular trip was called ‘Experience Ghana - Journey to a Real Life Wakanda’. I joined the group as both a participant and as a researcher, with the goal of studying the experiences of African-Americans travelling ‘back’ to Africa, a phenomenon also known as Roots Tourism.

As a group, we journeyed through Accra, Cape Coast and Kumasi with the intent of experiencing as much of Ghana as we could in just two weeks. Our experience was nothing short of transformational – from pulling in fish with the locals in a small village near Cape Coast, to exploring the horrific enslaved dungeons where many of our ancestors were kept before being shipped across the Atlantic to begin what would be a horrific story of slavery and human injustice; a difficult, but humbling history is ever present on this Gold Coast.

A stop roadside to help locals pull a large net of fish out of the water. Photo credit: Kumi Rauf, Traveling Black

The Traveling Black group with local people in a small fishing village near Cape Coast. Photo credit: Kumi Rauf, Founder - Traveling Black

Okay now, let’s back up a little bit… and please, bare with me.

Growing up in The Bahamas in my household with my White Canadian Mother, Black Bahamian Father and two older brothers – this was my normal, and for many others I knew, this was their normal too. Race was rarely, if ever a topic in our house, at school, or amongst my friends.

It wasn’t until I moved to the U.S., (Auburn, Alabama to be specific) at the age of 17 that I all of a sudden I became a ‘Black face’in majority White spaces. I don’t think I consciously realized it then, but, as a person of color, mixed with half Black blood, living in the U.S., this automatically categorizes you as Black. Prior to this time, I’m not even sure I had ever consciously considered my racial identity before.

I was a Bahamian-Canadian girl, who loved the water and had much national pride for my home country, The Bahamas. That was it, that was me. Yes, like other places in the world, we colloquially used colors to describe people – ‘he’s dark skin and tall’, ‘she’s light skin with curly hair’ – but, it never felt like a big deal. People were who they were and that was that. This was the privilege of living in a majority Black nation that I did not yet realize I had.

Back to Ghana. Towards the end of the trip, we began to talk amongst each other about how this experience in Africa had impacted us all in different ways. Some spoke of feeling an even stronger connection to the continent, identifying now as African AND American, instead of African-American. Others felt a strengthened sense of responsibility to Black America, developing an even stronger sense of responsibility to Black lives.

In the middle of the trip, others in the group realized that I was not ‘full’ Black, but a half-breed. All of a sudden, I was being questioned “well how do you feel about XYZ since your Mom is White?”, does it bother you when we say “White people?”, “what has your experience been like because your Mom is White?”. It felt intrusive, but I understood the curiosity.

An image of the group exploring Jamestown at sunset - a fishing village and one of the oldest settlements in Accra. Photo credit: Kumi Rauf, Founder - Traveling Black

All of a sudden I felt like an imposter in this space, but at the same time, I felt like I didn’t fit anywhere else. While I thoroughly enjoyed myself and felt truly welcomed by the people there, I in fact, was not home, and I am not an African. I am not even African-American. I am a mixed race, White and Black, Bahamian and Canadian woman, living on the West Coast of the United States. There were moments where I questioned – “Should I even be here on this trip specifically targeted towards Black travelers? Do I fit the demographic?”

“Am I Black enough?”

It’s interesting, race in America, in some instances (like this one), a shining light is put on it questioning your Blackness, and in others, as in the case of figures like Barack Obama and Meghan Markle – their (half) blackness is celebrated and revered amongst the Black community.

I realize that this story is not a unique one, and will become more and more common as time moves on. However, since returning, I’ve been able to spend some time reflecting on my identity crisis of double consciousness brought on by my trip to Ghana.

To be honest, I have not arrived at any answers in particular, other than, I cannot change either of my genetic halves, and I do not wish to. I have also realized that genetics determine only part of who I am, the other part, has been largely determined by my environment. By virtue of my living in the United States for my entire adult life, (in the South for many of those years) – my identification with the Black American experience is real and the history of my Black ancestors lives through me.

What I am clear on is that my personal and professional passions are to bring justice and equity to the lived experiences of marginalized people, and I am fortunate to have an outlet to shine a light on these voices, including my own.

About the Author

Alana Dillette is an Assistant Professor at San Diego State University. Originally from the islands of The Bahamas, she is always trying to maintain her connection to home through research. Her research interests include issues around diversity and inclusion, more specifically looking at the intersection between tourism, race, gender & ethnicity. Currently, she is working on research to gain a better understanding of the African-American travel experience. Fun fact - she competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics for The Bahamas in swimming.

Eight years ago, Nomadness Travel Tribe founder, Evita Robinson started something that has now become a globally recognized movement amongst Black travelers in America and around the world. Steeped in her film background, Evita co-executive produced ‘The NOMADNESS Project’ along with HBO Insecure’sIssa Rae, a show that documents the experiences of people of color living and traveling abroad. Early in 2011, Evita expanded the series platform into her now award winning travel lifestyle brand – NOMADNESS. However, it wasn’t until early 2015 that Black Travel, as a movement, started gaining momentum. What began as one woman’s vision to shape shift the landscape and representations of people of color in the travel industry, has grown exponentially and is now represented by numerous organizations, bloggers and social influencers driving Black Travel as a Movement. As researchers dedicated to promoting social equity in the travel and tourism sphere, we wanted to understand the stories of the founders behind the movement and reveal how they are making a difference in each of the unique communities they serve.

Black Travel is REPRESENTATION

WHY Black Travel, you may ask…why not ‘travel for everyone’?

The Negro Motorist Green Book was an annual guidebook for African-American road trippers published between 1936-1966.

A similar argument as the opposition to #blacklivesmatter, some may wonder why this movement is even necessary. However, in an industry that boasts itself the largest in the world, representation of marginalized travelers has been severely underserved for centuries. Danny Rivers-Mitchell, founder of Black Girls Travel Too, reflects on how the history of slavery in the United States continues to impact travel today:

“This (the Black Travel Movement) is a result of slavery that has just trickled down. I mean think about it – when our ancestors were enslaved people, we were prevented to learn…[and] you have to understand that the result of that is catastrophic. It's still present today. Many of our parents didn’t travel, couldn’t travel. Although now we have the ability to travel and have access to knowledge, generational limits of beliefs still linger. You have to go back and correct all of what went wrong, and this is what the movement is doing for Black Travel. You have to get through all of that muck. And it's hard, really hard. It’s gonna take generations.” In fact, the over 30 year old Travel Channel, just premiered it’s second ever series featuring a Black female lead, Kellee Edwards, who leads her show – Mysterious Islands. However, Evita Robinson, CEO and creator of Nomadness Travel Tribe feels that the Black Travel Movement can’t be ignored any longer, “They can't ignore us [Black travelers] anymore. There's so many of us, and we've grown so big - our platforms are getting bigger and bigger. We have built tangible communities, that is power.”

In short, REPRESENTATION MATTERS.

Evita goes on to describe her view of the current media climate of the travel industry, “Mainstream media is still doing a poor job. They're starting to crack, but they’re still doing a poor job representing travelers of color. It's just like, they say they want a part of this, but nothing in your marketing is indicating that. Nothing.” In fact, recently, there has been a major uptake in the travel industry beginning to take notice that they need to do a better job at representing marginalized groups in their marketing material. Evita goes on to argue for the necessity of authentic marketing and storytelling:

Nomadness Travel Tribe travelers in India

“There's a couple of levels with it, but it starts with lack of representation and us needing to tell our own stories, us owning our own narratives, and social media became a level playing field of us to be able to do that. We kind of just took it and ran with it.”

Black Travel is COMMUNITY

Black Travel has grown to be more than just a new age representation of the traditional travel agent, they are a community of movers and shakers that believe in supporting each other. Groups are forming organically and provide support not only for travelers, but also for Black business owners and suppliers. Founder of Urban Events Global, Kevin Knight says:

“African-American businesses are able to be vendors at my events for free. I don't charge them to be a vendor at the event because I really want their business to grow and I want them to meet other people. The Black Travel Movement is more than just Black people traveling and taking cool pictures for Instagram. You're really building a stronger network of family, friends, and people that can actually go into business together and build relationships.”

In a lot of ways NoirBnB is The Green Book part two. When we started, that really wasn’t something that we planned to do. However, after we started gaining traction, a lot of people came to us saying, ‘Hey, you guys are really like a new version of The Green Book.’ And then, the light immediately went off in my head and I was like, ‘Wow, we really are.’

He goes on to say, “Although it's a shame that something like our company is necessary right now, it's also a beautiful thing because it provides us an opportunity to serve our community. We want NoirBnB to be that central, global, Black community where not only travelers, but Black business owners, service providers, inventors, creatives and artists can have a home base where they feel safe and comfortable connecting and building genuine relationships.”

Black Travel is ADVENTURE

Within the Black Travel sphere, there are options for everyone, whether you fancy adventure, luxury, transformation or returning to your homeland – there is an organization for you.

CEO and founder of Bucket List Beasts, Sonjia Mackey seeks to shed light on opportunities for the adventurous traveler, and breaking down stereotypes about ‘who’ the quintessential adventure traveler is. Although the majority of her travelers are African-American women, she makes a point to clarify that her group is not just about Black Travel - “I think you have to be clear on what your mission is, what you stand for and what you're about. For me, it's always been about the adventure of getting people out of their comfort zones. It’s not just about Black travel. We live in a diverse world where we are all connected, whether we choose or want to be or not.”

Black Travel is LUXURY

Luxury travel is a niche market within the travel industry, that, traditionally, has been shrouded by a White upper-class face. Yacht week anyone? Founder of Up in the Air Life,Claire Soares has you covered. Claire reflects on the mission of her business:

Up in the Air Life Travelers participating in Yacht week.

“I wanted to create a space for people who appreciate the finer things in life, and want a more luxurious experience, that is how Up in the Air Life was born.”

Unfortunately, in the luxury space, stereotypes and accessibility present their own issues for Black travel groups. Claire shared that, “Yachting is a really great example where there's lots of reasons why we [Black travelers] are not exposed to certain things. For instance, it's not that renting a boat for a week is expensive, it’s that we don't have access, because our parents don't own boats. When we go sailing, you’ll typically see Caucasian families where the father has learned to sail from his father. They own their own boats and it is generational. They can afford to, and we could afford to take a yachting trip, but we don't know how to drive it. We don't know how to sail a boat. It's not even something that would even come up in conversation.”

In the luxury travel space at large, Claire has faced her fair share of push back, solidifying the continuous need for the Black Travel Movement, “The challenges we face is when we're reaching out to partners as a luxury company, that sometimes I think just because I'm black, they send me things that are not luxury, as if we can not afford it.”

Black Travel is TRANSFORMATION

Transformation through travel has long been a sought out experience. Two organizations focused on empowering Black female travelers are offering experiences specific to the modern day independent Black woman – Black Girls Travel Too and Black Girl Travel Movement.

Black Girls Travel Too voluntourism tours connect with the heart of the community where they work along side locals, to create sustainability.

Black Girls Travel Too’s founder Danny Rivers-Mitchell provides a unique experience for women to give back to communities while traveling, “Travel is one of my passions that led me to my purpose. I enjoy global humanitarian work. So because of Black Girls Travel Too I've just created a spin off, a philanthropic arm called Serving in Paradise Foundation. I believe that it's very imperative when you travel to destinations that you pour money back into the local community.”

On the other hand, Black Girl Travel Movement, founded by Shay Sane, provides the unique opportunity to travel with a life coach who will help you not only escape, but also face life’s very real struggles while experiencing a new destination. Black Girl Travel Movement takes you on an adventure into emotional healing:

“Through my own travels, I discovered that there's healing power in travel. While we’re traveling, we’re exploring the pores of who we are, and are open to receive new culture, we're also opening ourselves up to healing. So that's what the mission is for the Black Girl Travel Movement – to empower women to find healing through travel.”

Black Travel is HOME

People may not automatically associate politics with travel, but, they are closely related. In 2016, after Trump was elected President, International arrivals to the U.S. decreased 3.8% in 2017. At certain points, some countries even put out travel advisories for Black people traveling into the United States due to a reported uptick in police brutality against Black men. The Trump era of U.S. politics has been correlated with an increase in travel by African-Americans to African nations. Coupled with the popularity of DNA testing through companies like Ancestry and 23 and Me, more and more African-Americans are choosing to take their vacations and visit the homeland.

Traveling Black group in Durban, South Africa.

Founder of both I love being Black and Traveling Black, Kumi Rauf, focuses specifically on travel experiences connecting the African Diaspora around the globe. His focus on ‘Traveling Black’ is not only on the travelers, but also within the local communities as well.

“One of the things that we focus on specifically is that we are aiming at Black restaurants, Black guides, Black history, and Black culture when we travel. When we get there, our goal is to put our green dollars in somebody’s Black pocket. Sometimes, this is hard to do, even in Africa. For example, in South Africa, finding a Black safari guide was extremely hard to do in Kruger National Park. Something you might assume there is a plethora of, because it’s Africa, but, unfortunately, this is not the case.”

Wakanda for real anyone?

Some companies have even started advertising trips back to Africa in unison with the popular 2018 Marvel film, Black Panther, offering travelers a chance to experience ‘WAKANDA for real’. Lawrence McLean, founder of African American Travelers, reflects on the recent uptake for trips to Africa within his company.

“When we started to promote this Home for the Holidays trip, in order to drive people to register sooner rather than later, the coupon code for this particular trip was Wakanda For Real, because, I think people really started to realize that a real life version of Wakanda does exist. It’s certainly driving African-Americans back home, and will for some time to come.”

One thing these founders all had in common was their belief that through collaboration, partnerships and opportunities for more investment – it is only just the beginning for the Black Travel Movement.

A huge THANK YOU to each of the founders who took part in this research which is still ongoing!